Guide to Custom Card Design
You guys can already read the specifics in as to what you must do here and what is recommended, but not going to get you punished for breaking it or not having a reason for it. Card design evolves by Konami's whims and the need to attract new/old players. It should also be noted that different people have different ideas of what is "good" design and obviously, people will prefer varying levels of design from casual/fun to competitive level. 'Disclaimer' The following will generally take a balanced approach using these methods, albeit with an emphasis on designing for decency. I will make light references to the version found on the YCM Wikia (which I have mixed opinions about), but note that those rules (nor any of the admins there) '''DO NOT' have any bearing here.'' Everything written here is only a collection of universal standards across communities that apply to designing appropriate Custom Cards (and part of my wisdom of being a Custom Card moderator for over 4 years). '' '''They do not hold any (legal) bearing outside of Sakura CC, nor shall you be penalized for any breaches.' 'Guidelines' #Cards should be designed so other people may use them too. #Make an attempt to balance your stuff. #Use official card grammar and understand the differences between it and standard writing. #Keep your stuff relatively simple. #Be mindful of archetype/card names so they don't get unintentional support from / rendering of such to a Deck that it has no business in. #Try to abide by existing standards in the game. #Test your cards before using them. #Understand how certain Decks work functionally. Some of my suggested guidelines are roughly similar to the YCM Wikia version, though I interpret them slightly differently and with less elitism. 'Interpretation' 'Rule 1' Unless you make them exclusively for yourself on Duel Portal / Dueling Book or wherever else that allows you to upload your own customs for use, whatever you make will be usable by others. In the anime/manga, certain characters monopolize archetypes / sets of cards for their own personal usage, however please try not to adopt that route outside of fanfic characters (usually antagonists) who use powerful cards. (Though, unless you actually upload them to Dueling Book or other communal sites, or print them out yourself, stuff you make here is probably for yourself anyway.) 'Rule 2' As I just mentioned above, the concept of balance is a subjective topic, given it depends on two things. *The current gamestate with any updates to the banlist, new releases or modification of the game mechanics. *Individual mentality on what they consider "acceptable" and "unacceptable" design. There is no right/wrong criterion, however a general rule of thumb is just not making something that is nearly impossible to get over / counter. No, being Kaiju'able isn't really an excuse... 'Rule 3' Just like standard English (or other languages), Yu-Gi-Oh cards have their own syntax. You may find general examples of such on the Miscellaneous rule page. Please note that the manga tends to short hand effects due to spacing and whatnot, so do not copy your card grammar from there. However, I am aware that card grammar is not everyone's forte, especially under these circumstances: *Card grammar gets modified every so often, including what misses timing (with "if" and "when") *You are relatively new to custom card design. *You have been out of the loop for a while. *You do not speak English very well. **Note that you need to write your cards in English, but you may post in your native language too. As far as I care, I would like if you all make an attempt to use official card grammar, but if there are some mistakes, then it isn't worth getting flustered over. 'Rule 4' I'm not saying that you have to go by DM design or something where all effects are basically one-liners, but rather, don't make a card that has a text wall for an effect. Ideally, keep it to about 2-3 effects maximum and don't require a bunch of actions. Using tournament play as an example, simpler cards are easier to remember and you don't have any potential ruling problems to deal with, especially with claims of incompetent Konami judges and differences between TCG/OCG. 'Rule 5' Archetype membership is determined by the Japanese names, given most of the cards in this game are released in Japan first, then ported over to other territories later. That being said, due to some of the limitations and quirks of the Japanese language, cards that are unrelated to each other end up being grouped as an archetype. Some examples can be "Archfiend", "Red", "Hundred" being a sub-archetype of "Hand", etc. I don't expect everyone to have a working knowledge of Japanese for designing customs, though just be mindful of certain quirks that your name may have that might not translate well in other languages. 'Rule 6' You can read most of this in Part 2 of the Custom Card rules (the recommended ones), but in a nutshell, try not to make your own Types/Attributes/sub-types without reason. Other limits like stats, Level/Rank, etc should also be followed, but you may break the mold if your card has some drawbacks to warrant it. 'BEWD Rule' I honestly feel that this rule is arbitrarily set due to Seto Kaiba and anime lore. Breaking this rule, contrary to what some people feel, is NOT disrespecting the game as not everyone shares the same opinion of Blue-Eyes (in light of their meta presence a while back). If you make a Vanilla monster over Level 8 and +3000 ATK (or DEF), no big deal. Just have a reason for doing it though. 'Custom God Cards' inb4 we get DM purists and other people complaining... If you wish to make your own God cards (DIVINE-Beast and DIVINE Attribute), then I won't stop you from doing so. Konami will not design more because of DM pandering, but doesn't mean you cannot. However, if you go this route, make sure that you can justify using both the Type and Attribute together and use it wisely. Ideally, basing it on actual deities (or in the case of Pop Culture design, characters who have powers / are considered to be equivalent) works out nicely. 'Rule 7' Unless you actually practice using them, it is difficult to adequately gauge your card's powers and to know whether they need adjustments or they're fine. You can try to gauge it by eye, but you learn more from practicing. That in mind, you have several avenues of uploading your cards to work together or in tandem with existing cards. These include, but likely aren't limited to: 'Duel Portal (DP)' While it does allow for uploading TCG/OCG cards to the site, uploading the actual images for them verbatim are forbidden as of September 2017. This was done in response to the initial closure of Dueling Network by Nihon Ad Systems due to misinterpretation of the C&D order. However, any replication / fan art versions of the original art are permissible. If you are unable to make an image of your own, just upload the card as normal under Public-TCG and request someone on the Discord to make a pic. DP has a solitaire mode that you may test out your customs in, so that much may be of use. However, please note the following caveats. *Server may go down every so often for maintenance and other unforeseen problems, however this is generally rare nowadays. *Low active playerbase, however they're generally civil and do not cause trouble. (There are exceptions due to past bad blood, but they shouldn't concern you for the most part and are mild.) *Not all official cards are added, though most of the staple ones are there. I am also a Duel Portal site moderator, so if you have questions, please feel free to ask. 'Dueling Book / Network' Ah yes, the original online duel simulator. While they do have a Custom Card server for testing, the community there is rather toxic and is not for everyone. 'YGOPro' This one poses several challenges to design, including the following, *Requires you to know how to script and write CDBs. *Runs on OCG rulings due to documentation, however they may differ in the TCG. *YGOPro has core problems that they likely are not going to address in a public release for quite a while. As such, certain card designs are not possible. *Automated (and no AI mode right now) However, I use this one often against myself for testing (and puzzles help to an extent for debugging). 'Rule 8' Translated into simpler terms, know how a Deck functions and any particular themes / patterns present in them. That being said, not everyone is capable of abiding by the latter due to puns, design work, etc and it is foolish to assume / force people to have a working knowledge of it. At a minimum, just understand how the Deck works. However, sometimes you may have to break theme to make things work, considering some playstyles don't function in the modern era like they would've some time back (if ever). Ending These guidelines are subject to updates at any time if deemed necessary, but again, they're just some guidelines that you should follow if the goal is making decent cards. Note that you are not required to design for competition and that you may do whatever you'd like in creating cards here (within limits). Category:Rules